Rebirth

By Northern Correspondent

An interesting development in the north west is the de-merger in January 2009 of Arriva North West & Wales, a company currently spanning a massive geographic area from Aberystwyth & Holyhead to Wigan, Macclesfield, Crewe, Greater Manchester and Preston, with tentacles even to Swansea & Cardiff.

Henceforward, Arriva Buses Wales will become a separate business coterminous with the current Arriva Cymru operating licence, whose antecedent operator in 1987 was 470-vehicle Crosville Wales Ltd, which itself resulted from the de-merger of Crosville Motor Services.

Arriva North West had progressively expanded its operations by purchasing the former Merseyside PTE operations known as MTL plus some smaller north west operations and, in 2002, by merging its Welsh operations under the head office at Aintree, north Liverpool. Indeed, 1,300-vehicle ANWW had become Arriva Passenger Services’ largest operating subsidiary, employing 3,500 staff at 20 depots, six of which are in Wales.

The pre-merger Arriva Cymru’s managing director actually reported to Arriva North West’s but otherwise both companies were separate. This structure is reported to be the case from 2009.

Wales was particularly hit hard by foot & mouth in 2001 and this was the direct impetus behind the ANNW 2002 merger. Now, though, the 250-vehicle Welsh business is sound. It’s benefited from early free travel, from 2002. It’s also seen interesting pro-public transport policies emerging from the Welsh Assembly, in Cardiff. A greater involvement in Welsh politics is believed to be a key determinant in the de-merger. It follows Stagecoach West & Wales’ de-merger in 2003 for similar reasons.

Arriva last month purchased the newer vehicles operating on KMP’s competing services between Anglesey, Bangor and Llandudno, integrating the services with its own.

The position of managing director Arriva Buses Wales appeared in last week’s trade press.